The invention relates to an arrangement for producing steel from solid and/or liquid charging materials, such as pig iron, heavy scrap and light scrap, with a refractorily lined refining vessel in which a heating-refining arrangement is liftably and lowerably positioned, and, if desired, an arrangement for supplying further charging materials is positioned.
It has already been known (Austrian Pat. No. 232,531) to supply heat that has been missing to the materials charged by means of burners in order to reach the refining temperature or to increase the scrap charged, wherein a blow pipe having an oxygen blowing pipe and a fuel supplying pipe is provided as heating-refining means. Through the fuel supplying pipe, oil or natural gas, i.e., a fossile fuel, is led into the refining vessel.
With this known means it is possible to increase the amount of scrap charged, yet with the increase in the scrap portion also the time needed for charging increases, since the flame first has to work through the charged scrap that is present above the molten pig iron. The oxygen supplied ignites only if the flame has melted enough scrap down to the pig iron bath level, which takes relatively long.
The invention aims at avoiding these difficulties and has as its object to provide an arrangement of the initially defined kind which makes it possible to increase the scrap portion of the materials charged, wherein, however, the time passing until the end of the refining procedure per charge is not substantially increased. In particular it shall also be possible to charge badly contaminated light scrap, such as, e.g., scrap from cars and surface-coated cans, etc.